Josh Hamilton is the most aggressive hack in baseball. This isn’t news, of course, but to put his hacktastic ways in context, here is where Hamilton’s swing rates rank among batters with 500+ PAs in the last year.

1883 The New York Giants play their first ever-game. They beat Boston, 7-5. Among the 12,000 in attendance is former president U. S. Grant. Also debuting, the Philadelphia Phillies play their first game. They lose 4-3 to Providence

1886 The NL plays its first game under “sudden death” rules in the ninth. It used to be that both teams batted in the ninth, no matter the score. Now a team won’t bat in the bottom half if it already has won the game. In the first such game, Chicago tops Cincinnati, 4-3.

1920 Babe Ruth hits his first home run as a Yankee. It’s career long ball No. 50

1920 It’s the longest game in history, as the Braves and Dodgers play 26 innings and end tied 1-1. Both starting pitchers go the distance: Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger.

1928 Babe Ruth legs out his 100th career triple.

1974 Pittsburgh pitcher Dock Ellis is looking to send a message to shake things up against the Reds. Boy, does he ever want to send a message. He beans the first three batters of the game and then walks the fourth guy on four would-be bean balls. After two more attempts, he’s yanked from the game

1975 Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s RBI record, as he ends the day with 2,211 RBIs to Ruth’s 2,209. Next year, the Records Committee will revise Ruth’s RBI total to 2,204, so officially the record was set on April 18, but no one knew that on May 1, 1975

2003 Baltimore’s B.J. Ryan records a win despite not throwing a single pitch. He enters the game and picks off Omar Infante in the bottom of the seventh to end the inning. The Orioles rally to take the lead in the eighth and pull Ryan for a new pitcher in the eighth. Baltimore wins, 5-4 over Detroit.

2004 Barry Bonds gets four intentional walks in a nine-inning game, setting a record for a nine-inning contest. (Andre Dawson had five in a 16-inning game in 1990).

The Edward Mujica train continues to go with no signs of stopping. Mujica nailed down his fifth save of the season striking out the side in the ninth inning. It wasn’t the bottom of the lineup either as Mujica K’d Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce to end the game. Mujica has always been known for his excellent control, but his 9.9 K/9 would be the highest of his career and it might be somewhat sustainable as Mujica is getting more swings and misses thus far with a career high 13.8% SwStr% in 2013.

With Giancarlo Stanton out of the mix, highly-regarded outfielder Marcell Ozuna gets a chance to show what he can do. The 22-year-old was off to a ridiculous 10-game start at Double-A (.333/.383/.810, five homers), his first time at the level. We'll see how he handles a double-jump to the show. But no matter what Ozuna is ready for, the Marlins already had the worst offense in the majors by far (71 runs; .226/.287/.312 slash) – and now we can be even more aggressive in our efforts to stream against them.

Kyle Kendrick (Yahoo: 25% | ESPN: 23%), Andrew Cashner (27%, 5%), Jonathan Pettibone (1%, 1%), Dillon Gee (7%, 0%) -- What do all four right-handers have in common? Facing a Giancarlo Stanton-less Marlins offense within the next week. It's redundant to pick on the Marlins, but this is a group that's hitting .226/.287/.312 as a team. Wade LeBlanc is a career .252/.279/.262 hitter. It's barely a downgrade from the rest of their lineup when he's in. Those matchups are listed in my preferred order, for what it's worth.

what you probably are going to get with Marcell Ozuna is an outfielder with power potential (though it is still developing) who is likely going to struggle to hit for an impressive average. Throw in the concerns about the lineup around him (limiting his counting stats) and you likely have a player who may contribute in one or two categories but not much more

This MLB.com YouTube channel will include highlight clips from every MLB game in 2013 as well as thousands of hours from MLBAM’s archives. In-season highlights will be available approximately two days after the respective games have been completed. Videos from MLB.com’s Baseball’s Best Moments library also will be included.

Among pure closers, Jason Grilli leads the way in points leagues with 89 points. The Pittsburgh closer is a perfect 10-for-10 in saves and has a 17:4 K:BB ratio in 11 innings. Grilli continues to get plenty of swings and misses this season with a 13.9 percent swinging strike rate, and his first pitch strike percentage is up to 58.1 percent. He's maintained excellent control with a 9.3 percent walk rate, and he has yet to give up a big fly (a big no-no for closers). The most encouraging sign from Grilli has been his velocity, which has hasn't skipped a beat from its jump of 92.4 in 2011 to 93.6 in 2012 (it's currently sitting at 93.7). Some questioned why the Pirates would let Joel Hanrahan, a proven major league closer, walk at the end of last season. Grilli is showing us why. He's for real. The Pirates lead the NL Central and should remain competitive throughout the year, which should present Grilli with plenty of save chances

Brandon Beachy is on pace to begin a rehab assignment next week and still projects to join the Atlanta Braves around mid-June. It would behoove any fantasy owner in a league with an extra DL slot or a deep enough bench to grab and hang on to Beachy. He is owned in 60% of CBS leagues, 23% of Yahoo! formats, and just 3% of ESPN leagues.

News that interests me, and possibly you, but mostly me.

Jarrod Parker notched his first victory on Tuesday after allowing four runs -- three earned -- in six innings against the Angels

Rickie Weeks went 3-for-4 with five RBI in the Brewers' 12-8 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday.

Hyun-Jin Ryu struck out 12 while allowing two runs in six innings Tuesday in a defeat of the Rockies.

Hanley Ramirez homered and doubled in his first start back from the disabled list on Tuesday.

Carlos Gomez went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases in the Brewers' win over the Pirates on Tuesday

Starling Marte went 3-for-5 with a home run against the Brewers on Tuesday

Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to lead the Giants to a 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

J.J. Putz took his fourth blown save and his first loss after giving up a homer to Pablo Sandoval in the ninth on Tuesday.

Carlos Quentin went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in the Padres' 13-7 win over the Cubs on Tuesday.

Took the homer pick and went Brewers. If Segura and Gomez both really break out I actually believe they might be the best, certainly the best offense if that is true. The bullpen might be the Achilles heel.. Certainly not more of a homer pick than the guy who picked the Pirates who clearly aren't one of the top 3 and got off to a flukey start.

I'm starting Lincecum today. I don't trust him even a tiny bit but I guess if you have to take a chance it is better to do it early in the season when pitchers are still ahead of hitters.

Clay Buchholz is going today. His strikeout rates have always been lower than expected from his stuff, but not this year. He was the top pitching prospect in the game a few years back (with three plus pitches and a potential for four ), and has shown flashes of dominance in the past (no hitter, ect...), but right now its all working.

Do I think he is going to be this dominant all year? No, but he I do think he is going to have a good year.

Plus his curve ball did this to Stanton last year:

"I do not think baseball of today is any better than it was 30 years ago... I still think Radbourne is the greatest of the pitchers." John Sullivan 1914-Old athletes never change.

If the Brewers had another good bullpen arm I'd lean towards them. I went STL for now. I think STL, CIN and MIL will be within 5 games of each other at the end. STL has some crazy SP depth.

Great post wrv.

My fantasy teams have been coming around lately, all but one team actually. I'm getting frustrated in H2H when my opponent lights up the scoreboard like a pinball machine every week. I have a good team that keeps running into a buzzsaw every week. What can you do

Pogotheostrich wrote:NL Central is Reds or Cards. I don't really see how anyone picks the Brewers, Pirates or Cubs.

Why wouldn't anyone be able to pick the Brewers. Had the best offense in the NL last year, has a better offense this year. They got off to a rotten start to 2012 but they had a better record than the Reds or the Cardinals from mid May on. They are right in the mix now even with 2 of their biggest bats on the DL. The rotation is probably better this year than last year too. It is really the bullpen that is the question. If they had a couple better RP I'd be pretty confident picking them.

Pogotheostrich wrote:NL Central is Reds or Cards. I don't really see how anyone picks the Brewers, Pirates or Cubs.

Why wouldn't anyone be able to pick the Brewers. Had the best offense in the NL last year, has a better offense this year. They got off to a rotten start to 2012 but they had a better record than the Reds or the Cardinals from mid May on. They are right in the mix now even with 2 of their biggest bats on the DL. The rotation is probably better this year than last year too. It is really the bullpen that is the question. If they had a couple better RP I'd be pretty confident picking them.

Why wouldn't anyone be able to pick the Brewers? Pitching. I said before the season that the Brewers season depends on the SP and nothing the in the first month has made me think the SP can carry this team. They have the best offense in the NL Central but I'm not sure it is better than last year. Gomez, Sequera, and Betancourt aren't going to keep up this pace. Aram and Hart injuries still loom large. Reds and Cardinals have pretty good offenses too and the SP is much much better. I am a little surprised that the Brewers are doing this well with the injuries they have had because they don't have the depth the Cards or Reds have. Over the course of the season I think it hurts them.